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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (103)	8/29/2000 2:41:08 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10042

Isn't that why you have a trial so one can be proven innocent or guilty? Deutsch had every opportunity and right to appeal the loss of his security clearance, but he chose not to do so. Possessing a clearance is not a right. It is a priviledge which, if abused, is revoked. That then impairs Mr. Deutsch's ability to work on sensitive issues, as well as tarnishing his reputation and marketability as a policy consultant to government. Now if there was evidence that Mr. Deutsch was aware that someone was logging onto his computer and downloading sensitive files, and he did nothing about it out of his fear for someone finding out he had put classified information on his personal computer, then I would think there might be a case of willful negligence of security regulations and protecting the nation's secrets. But from all I've heard or read, the guy just was stupid (arrogant?) enough to believe he was not subject to the rules that are imposed on every other handler of classified material. The normal procedure for mishandling classified information is job termination and revocation of security clearance. It is VERY rare that negligence would lead to criminal prosecution. And Wen Ho Lee would not currently find himself the subject of a criminal investigation had it not appeared that he was downloaded far more classified material than he needed to have access to in the normal performance of his job. That leads to the suspicion that he was preparing to hand it off to a foreign government. That's the reason HE is being indicted and not Mr. Deutsch. Lee brought about this suspicion upon himself by his actions. If it were just a matter of his taking his classified work home with him, he'd probably just have been fired and that would have been that (so long as he assisted the counter-intelligence office in preparing a damage assessment detailing possibly compromised material as a result of his negligence. Regards, Ron